Dear Readers After more than a decade (10 years wow!) of free food gardening posts for South Africa I have come to the end of this blog's journey. I have successfully saved my old blogger blog Roots and Shoots by migrating to Whisker Flowers on WordPress after Google started culling its traffic. Now I am… Continue reading New Adventures Elsewhere: Retiring Whisker Flowers
Category: Observations
Seasonal Rainfall Update: 2021
Introduction It is that time of year again! I have 8 seasons worth (i.e., 8 years) of rainfall data for our analytic scrutinization LOL! The rainfall season for this season and last season has been an immense improvement on our drought years... so lets take a closer look at the numbers, shall we? The Data… Continue reading Seasonal Rainfall Update: 2021
Seasonal Rainfall Update: 2020
Introduction We have been diligently tallying our seasonal rainfall since 2013 throughout the El Nino drought years. Since 2014 South Africa has faced severe droughts, crippling the water supply, which treatened to leave Cape Town without water in 2018! The deepening of the drought years also meant that I had scaled down the vegetable garden… Continue reading Seasonal Rainfall Update: 2020
Sustainable, Productive and Economical Vegetable Gardening Series
I have a few articles that are meant to be read as a series, one following on the other and building upon that information. One of the first series I started was how to grow and maintain a productive garden without breaking the bank, yourself or the environment. 1.Vegetables Worth Growing The very first article… Continue reading Sustainable, Productive and Economical Vegetable Gardening Series
An Introduction to the Soil Micro-Ecosystem
To the majority of people soil is just soil – a sandy/clay substance in which plants grow and where little boys dirty their clothes, but to the savvy vegetable gardener, we know that the soil is the essential foundation from whence plants gain their nutrients. Without the correct balance of nutrients; plants grow poorly and… Continue reading An Introduction to the Soil Micro-Ecosystem
The C Files: How to raise chickens – Egg production
Chickens are a popular source of protein, due to their low-cost of raising and dual use as meat and eggs for protein production. South Africans are especially fond of chicken and it represents the most consumed protein in SA. Seeing that eggs are an easy, accessible and economic way to produce home-grown protein it is… Continue reading The C Files: How to raise chickens – Egg production
Little White Butterflies
Where do the white butterflies come from? Where do the white butterflies go? Brown Veined White Butterfly on pompoms, Belenois aurota Every year in South Africa, during December-January, little white butterflies take to the air in their thousands, all flying in the same direction. They visit gardens and flowers along the way. Even though it… Continue reading Little White Butterflies
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